Debt repayment the focus for Netball Australia after financial turnaround

Netball Australia is determined its stunning financial turnaround will be the first step to future-proofing the sport, after remarkably recovering from its harrowing financial position in 2022.

Netball Australia is confident it can both pay down its debt and create a fighting fund to future proof the sport after turning around its perilous financial position.

The organisation announced a $300,000 profit to member organisation presidents and CEOs at Thursday night’s annual general meeting, a stunning $4.7 million turnaround on its position just 12 months ago.

So much of a basket case was NA a year ago, the sport’s auditors issued a “going concern” notice.

And while it still holds $4.2 million in debt – with none of that paid off in the past year – the turnaround has been stark enough for the talk to be about future opportunity, rather than financial concern.

“ ‘Going concern’ is officially out of the picture, so the turnaround, posting a profit, (auditors’ apprehension surrounding) going concern is gone,” Ryan said.

“So financially were stable again. But obviously, the next major priority is paying down that debt as quick as we possibly can and then continuing to realise opportunity, wherever possible, so that helps us get out of the debt.

“Our next big focus area will be around creating a future fund of sorts, so creating a cash reserve for the future of the sport so we don’t have to be in this position of it’s nothing or it’s debt. We need to build a buffer.”

Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan says the sport is financially stable once again. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images for FOX Sports)

Building that reserve will be in conjunction with paying down owings after its debt facility was extended to August 2025 from May and September this year.

“Nothing has been paid towards that debt as we sit here today,” Ryan said.

“So we still have, as we did back then (last year), $4.2 million of debt and our desire is to pay a million down this year out of this year’s budget.

“So that’s our focus and where our attention swings to.”

NA’s position was always likely to improve in the 2022 financial year given it was able to run a home-and-away season after two Covid-impacted years during which the Super Netball competition was forced into hubs (in several states in 2021) at a cost of millions to the governing body.

A key indication of this was income from events passing the $3 million mark in a dramatic improvement from 2021 when the sport was forced into hubs in Melbourne, Adelaide and southeast Queensland at various points throughout the season.

The sale of the 2022 grand final – a controversial move at the time – to the West Australian government and return of domestic Test netball after an absence of more than 1000 days was a major contributor to this.

“(No Covid expenses) and then just the ability to actually return content, that was a huge thing for us after not being able to have Diamonds content for two years,” Ryan said.

Netball Australia’s $15 million Visit Victoria deal will be classified in next year’s figures. (AAP Image/James Ross)

“And then not having to financially support the rest of the system – participants back on court and back in stadiums for each of our SSN (Super Netball) teams just helped relieve the expense pressure across the whole sport.”

The foundations built in the 2022 financial year have already been improved upon, with figures from the $15 million Visit Victoria deal and sponsorships with new and existing supporters to be reported in next year’s figures.

“(The last 12 months was about) consolidating – that’s how we talk about it,” Ryan said.

“Our strategic plan is we have to go through a period of consolidation – go back to basics, square one, understand your business model, build a strategy that you think is going to create commercial viability – and start delivering that strategy to create financial viability.

“Pleasingly, that strategy that we put in place at the end of ‘21 is paying off so we now do have a foundation and now we go into considering transformation.

“We’ve still got a lot of what I would call housekeeping that we are still working through at the moment that we need to be able to finalise and then we can hopefully at the back end of this year start really having a better look at some of those transformational moments including your pinnacle events, the future of SSN (Super Netball) and long-term certainty around international content.”